Rangitikei Advocate. FRIDAY, DEC. 13. 1907. SECOND EDITION. EDITORIAL NOTES.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXII, Issue 9026, 13 December 1907, Page 2

Rangitikei Advocate. FRIDAY, DEC. 13. 1907. SECOND EDITION. EDITORIAL NOTES.

THE cabled report of Mr Deakin’s memorandum on the new protection is not as clear ns could bo wished, but it is evident that Australia is entering upon a course of experiments which it ismioro satisfactory to sec tried at tho expense of other people than at our own. Tho first departure from economic orthodoxy was the imposition of protective duties so as to enable articles to be produced in Australia which could be imported and sold more cheaply than they could he made there. Tho prices of such articles naturally wont up, and a suspicion arose that tho manufacturers were making larger profits without increasing wages to- any groat extent. A new protection Juts therefore now to be provided by the imposition of excise duties on 'certain classes of goods which enjoy tho benefit of sufficient protection,' and exemption from duties so imposed will then bo made in favour of those in tho manufacture of which fair and reasonable wages are paid. In this way, wherever effective protection _ is granted, its benefits will be limited to those manufacturers whose employees are allowed to share in them to this extent. The whole problem depends on what J-s meant by “stiff!cient protection.” If tho tariff is such that imports are practically excluded in any particular lino tiie employer need nod care what wages lie pays, as he can always raise, flic prico of what ho sells to make up for the extra cost of production. We may. therefore, probably look forward to a still newer protection tu tho near future. Tho manufacturer wax protected first by tho tariff, the labourer is now to be promote i by

the Kr;-r, ‘;;ld it only R.-ra; o protect • buyer hy reyu --g prices so ns io prevent the .. nfaciurer obtaining too mueii p/o.ir. la the end astonished politicians w ill find that the infant industries which they are c-ndeavonriug to foster by their nostrums have quietly given up the contest and expired while iho remedies were being discussed. Already ‘the Sunshine Harvester works and the Livhgnw iron works have closed their doors, and we may expect to see other enterprises similarly wiped out by over regulation.

SIR JOSEPH WARD appears to have been somewhat unduly optimistic in the opinion lie expressed tlie ocher day that the financial crisis in the United States would not produce any effect in this country. Business relations all over tho world are to-day so close that a shock to the credit of any country cannot fail to influence oven t 1 ■? most remold lands. We can, in-

deed. already trace one result of the crisis in Wall street in the fall in the price of wool, which seems to ho due in a great measure to the inaction of American buyers at the sales. For some years past large quantities of the best wool have boon purchased for American manufacturers, but they arc contracting their orders at present owing to the unsettled state of American business, It also scorns probable that the number of men who have been tin-own out of employment in the United States and the cessation of emigration from Britain and the Continent to the. States mnst seriously affect the number of unemployed, which is always largo in the winter. Any cause which tends to reduce the purchasing power of tbelabouring classes of Europe must in-, fallibly react in Now Zealand by clmc king the demand for our exports, and thus tending to reduce prices. ’